February 2025
Service Design
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“Each design is a proposed business solution - a hypothesis. Your goal is to validate the proposed solution as efficiently as possible by using customer/[user] feedback.”
“Empathy is at the heart of great products and services.”
Aside from this book popping up everywhere, I had an interview with a major U.S. airline where they talked about their design and development philosophy: SAFe. At the time, I didn’t know much about SAFe so in order to prepare for the interview, I researched the framework thoroughly and learned that in theory it is this: agile at scale.
When reading people’s opinions about the framework, it was NOT recommended. If anything, it was vilified to such an extent that I questioned going through with the interview process altogether. I read things like:
“SAFe is a recipe for disaster.”
I wanted to learn more about the landscape surrounding why SAFe isn’t ideal; more importantly, I wanted to learn what IS ideal and why. I kept seeing this book appear over and over so I decided to give it a read!
Lean UX is:
1. removing waste from the UX design process
2. design thinking: widening the scope of creation beyond artifacts
3. agile development
4. the harmonization of cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams
5. the prioritization of continuous learning
Lean UX is a mindset shift: the idea that design is at the forefront of product development rather than its own separate/siloed role/team.
Teams should be:
1. cross-functional
2. small, dedicated, collocated
3. self-sufficient and empowered
4. problem-focused
Teams should be:
1. moving from doubt to certainty: “enthusiastic skepticism”
2. outcomes, not output
3. removing waste
4. shared understanding
5. no rock stars, gurus or ninjas
6. permission to fail: psychological safety*
Teams should be:
1. DON’T DO THE SAME THING FASTER
2. Beware of phases
3. iteration is the key to agility
4. work in small batches to mitigate risk
5. embrace continuous discovery
6. get out of the building
7. externalize your work
8. make over analysis
9. get out of the deliverables business: be outcomes-focused
If I were to only get one takeaway from this book, it’s this:
“get out of the deliverables business”
Lean UX focuses on outcomes rather than output - a radical shift from the agency-like freelancing or agency-like environment a lot of designers are used to.
“we need to recognize that most requirements are simply assumptions expressed with authority.”
Beyond Lean UX being a way of thinking, it is also a process and is best summarized via the ‘Lean UX Canvas’ included in the book:
The Canvas has a few key requirements:
1. Use it at the START of an initiative
2. All team members should use it, see it, interact with it
Otherwise, it is meant to be a ‘north star’ or a means of achieving alignment for development.
Upon bringing all of the parts of the Canvas together, some central themes start to pop up. First, Lean UX is broad; it is like a cookbook - other processes, like design sprints, are recipes. Secondly, Lean UX is evolving; design systems are now a great way of achieving alignment within organizations while also producing a highly usable ‘deliverable.’ Lastly, Lean UX will look different at different organizations; there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to integrating it into existing organizations.
This book was a wealth of knowledge and helped to make sense of so many things I’ve previously encountered in the professional world: why design systems can sometimes harm an organization, the democratization and importance of continuous research, and also the importance of “full-stack” teams.
Despite this being the 3rd edition and being published in 2021 (after dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and forced remote work), I found it oddly archaic when talking about remote work - specifically the ideation, communication and ‘team bonding’ process. The authors argue that ‘team collocation’ is a VITAL part of Lean UX - they mean this literally: physical collocation. Despite providing examples of amazing new tools like Miro/MURAL, Figma, Zoom, etc., it seemed like none of these could ever come close to being physically together in a room or out in the field conducting research according to the authors. I listen to a podcast called ‘Awkward Silences’ produced by the team @ User Interviews and they constantly discuss the advantages of remote testing and remote working in general: more diverse user groups/subjects, more efficient tools, better work-life balance, better research outcomes (people are being tested/observed in their natural environments = amazing!), easier scheduling/rescheduling, less expensive, etc. However, none of these pros were mentioned in this book?
Regardless, I think the book and the Lean UX framework is amazing: it brings focus to where it matters: validating a business goal. By doing so, it legitimizes design as a profession and gives design a voice at the table. It also does a great job at articulating all of the places designers and non-designers can explore, get feedback and facilitate outside of their normal roles - thus creating a more diversely talented team.
Overall, it was a great read and I achieved my initial goal of leaning why SAFe is less than stellar and why.
8/10.
